ROCKET GRUNT EPHAURA wants to battle!
by Le Tenn
Summary: Ephaura wasn't very normal growing up. She grows up to join Team Rocket, and one day runs into Ash Ketchum. Will she succeed in catching his Pikachu? Or will she fail like Jessie and James have in the past?
1. Intro

Ephaura was never very 'normal' growing up, no matter _what_ your definition of normal is. While her friends loved pokémon like Jigglypuff and Clefairy, Ephaura preferred Murkrow and Mightyena. While her peers dreamed of becoming great pokémon trainers, Ephaura wanted to join Team Rocket. Ephaura wasn't a very ordinary child.

When Ephaura's friends left home at age ten, ordinary for a trainer, Ephaura stayed at home originally; you needed to be at least sixteen to join Team Rocket. At age eleven, she finally decided to go traveling; she would need a strong team before she decided to join Team Rocket.

By the time she was 16, she was fully prepared to join Team Rocket, as long as they would accept her. Ephaura was already headed off towards the Team Rocket base. She had built a mighty strong team consisting of a Murkrow, Mightyena, Houndoom, Seviper, Umbreon, and Rhydon.

Once there, she was immediately accepted after showing off her team. She took her uniform Giovanni gave her and slipped it on over her clothes. The uniform consisted solely of a long black cape with a scarlet 'R' on the chest. It also had a black hat with another scarlet 'R' on the brim, though Ephaura chose not to wear it; it was the only piece of the uniform that was optional.

"No, thank you. I really don't like hats," said Ephaura, fixing her long, dishwater blonde hair.

"Very well. Head into that room over there," said Giovanni, pointing to a silver door with red writing carved in it.

Ephaura walked to the door, reading the inscription. 'Cards'. Ephaura opened the door cautiously and entered the room. It was all black, with another door on the far side, and one dim light shining in the center of the room. Under the spotlight was a small computer desk with a laptop and printer, and two large machines on either side of the desk. An old man was sitting at the desk, busily typing away.

Ephaura unsurely sat down at a small wooden chair several feet away facing the desk.

The man at the desk pressed a button on the laptop and a bright light flashed in Ephaura's face like a camera's flash.

The man typed away at his laptop for almost 10 minutes, like he was coding something. Finally her looked up at Ephaura.

"Name?" he prompted.

"Ephaura."

"Spell?"

"E-P-H-A-U-R-A."

The man typed in her name and clicked the mouse a few times.

"Current Team?"

"You mean...the pokémon I have with me now?" he asked unsurely.

The man frowned. "Yes." He said, mumbling under his breath.

"Murkrow, Rhydon, Umbreon, Mightyena, Houndoom, and Seviper."

The man clicked away at his laptop, as two copies of Ephaura's trainer card were printed.

The man put the first copy in a file cabinet, and put the second into a machine that cut out the card perfectly.

"Fill this out." He said, handing Ephaura the card and a pen.

"The back."

Ephaura flipped over the card and filled out her name, birthday, and pokégear number. She then 'signed on the dotted line', and gave the man the card.

He put the card into a lamination machine and copied the back to put into her file. Then he gave the card back to Ephaura.

"Go." Said the man, pointing toward the door. This one had 'Training' written on it. Ephaura opened the door and saw a training ground, similar to a boot camp's obstacle course. There was one man instructing two others through the course.

"You're mean!"

"I can't breathe!" complained Jessie and James.

Ephaura walked up to the drill sergeant.

"Go over there and run through the course. You have 5 minutes to complete it," he said, not even turning around to look Ephaura in the face.

Ephaura quickly ran over to the beginning of the obstacle course.

"3... 2... 1... Go!"


	2. Initiation

"4 minutes, 47 seconds. Better than these two morons here, to say the least," said the drill sergeant, pointing to Jessie and James. "Go, over near that red button on the wall. This is your last test. Smash the button. The harder you smash it, the wider the door will open. Good luck, little girl,"

Ephaura excitedly speed walked over to the button and karate-chopped it as hard as she could. The door opened _just_ enough for her to barely sneak through.

The final room looked more like a doctor's waiting room than something that has to do with Team Rocket. There were two desks perpendicular to the dull green couch next to the door. Sitting at the desks were two rockets, Butch and Cassidy.

"Welcome," said Butch.

"We're assuming that you've made it thought all the other tests, yes? Honesty isn't always existent in Team Rocket, but during the recruitment process it certainly is required,"

Ephaura sat down on the couch and nodded. "Now, what kind of test is this, exactly?" questioned Ephaura.

"It's not _exactly_ a test. You need to pass it to join Team Rocket, but there really isn't a way to fail. It's more of a questionnaire than anything," explained Butch.

Butch had a clipboard with a sheet of paper with the questions on it, and Cassidy had a laptop where she was typing Ephaura's answers.

"Ephaura Solara Rocket."

"Birthday?" asked Butch, chuckling at Ephaura's last name.

"October 13."

"Why do you wish to join Team Rocket?"

"It seems so enjoyable, in a sense. I see no point in raising pokémon myself just to get them stolen by you as my friends have, so I thought I might as well protect myself from such an act...and my last name gave me a bit of inspiration."

For several minutes, Cassidy typed away at her laptop, answering obvious things like hair color, eye color, etcetera.

"Welcome to Team Rocket," saluted Butch, Cassidy closing her laptop.


	3. Pikachu

"Excuse me! Excuse me, are you Ash Ketchum?" said Ephaura, on her first mission to capture Ash's pikachu. Ephaura looked like a normal trainer. She had a salmon pink bag, with a grappling hook inside. The bag was made of rubber, which doesn't conduct electricity, as you may already know.

"Yeah...I'm Ash. Why? Who are you?"

"My name's Claire. I'm a trainer. I heard from Professor Oak that you're a pretty good trainer. Want to battle?" challenged Ephaura, under her alias name, Claire.

"Sure. Hold on, guys, this should only take a minute," said Ash, directed towards Misty and Brock.

"Seviper!"

"Bulbasaur, I choose you!"

"Seviper, Bite!" said 'Claire', Seviper immediately biting bulbasaur, making Bulbasaur faint instantly.

"Whoa. You're good. Bulbasaur, return! Pikachu, I choose you!"

"Seviper, grab!" commanded Claire, using her imaginary move.

"Grab? There's no move named 'grab'!" noticed Ash.

Seviper quickly constricted itself around Pikachu and dragged it over to Claire. Claire grabbed pikachu and shoved it into her bag, quick enough not to get shocked. Claire grabbed her grappling hook and shot it into the air, grabbing the top of a nearby tree.

Ash reached for a pokéball on his belt, but immediately noticed his pokéballs were missing!

"Looking for _these_?" taunted Claire, returning Seviper to its pokéball.

"Who are you? What do you want with my Pikachu?" demanded Ash.

Claire tore off her disguise to reveal her Team Rocket uniform.

"I am Ephaura, of Team Rocket! Those two _morons_ Jessie and James kept failing to catch your Pikachu, so they sent me. I don't know how they've failed so many repeated times. This was so easy! And I didn't _just_ get your pikachu, I've got your entire team!" laughed Ephaura.

Suddenly a black and red Team Rocket helicopter appeared from the clouds. They hovered above the tree and lowered a stepladder. Ephaura climbed up onto the ladder and into the helicopter.

"So long, _losers_!" Ephaura cackled, the helicopter flying off towards the Team Rocket base.


End file.
